. The
excursion, indeed, cost 1,000 pounds; but it was made to pay, and that to
great profit.

We were all a very genial, congenial party of easy-going geniuses. There
was Hassard, the "day editor" of the _New York Tribune_, who had been
with me on the _Cyclopaedia_, and to whom I was much attached, for he was
a gentlemanly scholar, and withal had seen enough of life on the
_Tribune_ to hold his own with any man; and Captain William Colton, who
had been with me in Tennessee; Robert Lamborn, who had studied science in
Germany, and was now a railroad man, and many more who are recorded in my
pamphlet, "Three Thousand Miles in a Railway Car," and my old associate,
Caspar Souder, of the _Bulletin_. This excursion was destined, in
connection with this pamphlet, to have a marvellous effect on my future
life.

In every town where we paused--and our pauses were frequent, as we
travelled very much on the "go-as-you-please" plan--we were received by
the authorities with honour and speeches and invited to dinners or
drinks. Our conductors were courtesy itself. One afternoon one of them
on a rough bit of road said, "Gentlemen, whenever you wish to open a
bottle of champagne, please to pull the cord and stop the train. You can
then drink without spilling your wine."

So we went to Chicago and St. Louis, where we were entertained by Mr.
Blow, and where I became acquainted with his daughter Susan. She was
then a beautiful blonde, and, as I soon found, very intelligent and
cultured. She was long years afterwards busy in founding philanthropic
schools in St. Petersburg, Russia, when I was there--a singularly noble
woman. However, at this time neither of us dreamed of the school-keeping
which we were to experience in later years. At this soiree, and indeed
for the excursion the next day, we had as a guest Mr. Walter, of the
London _Times_.

The next day we had a special train and an excursion of ladies and
gentlemen to visit the marvellous Knob or Iron Mountain. This is an
immense conical hill with a deep surrounding dale, beyond which rise
other hills all of nearly solid iron. Returning that evening in the
train, a very strange event took place. There was with us a genial,
pleasant, larky young fellow, one of the famous family of the MacCooks.
When the war came on he was at college--went into the army, fought
hard--rose to be captain, and then after the peace went back to the
college and finished his studies. This was